This is in the Oxford University Dictionary of Family Names:
Kibbe
Family History
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Kibbe Name MeaningEnglish: according to Reaney this is a nickname from an unattested Old English word cybbe meaning ‘clumsy’ or ‘thickset’. Reaney’s speculation is apparently based on taking the Middle English word kibble ‘cudgel’ as a diminutive of an unattested Old English word. Corresponding personal names have been postulated for the place names Kibworth (‘enclosure of a man called Cybba’) and Kibblesworth (‘enclosure of a man called Cybbel’); so, in theory, the surname could be a reflex of these Old English personal names.North German: nickname for a cantankerous person, from Middle Low German, Middle High German kiven ‘to quarrel’.
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After our Kibbe's ancestor (Cushman- which is used in many of our subsequent Kibbies as a middle name) came over on the second Englishmans' Massachusetts boat to the US, eventually the name changed to Kibby Kibbie and Kibbee possibly as people often pronounced Kibbe incorrectly. Branches came off into all these spellings.
My sister Mimi and my cousin Nancy have researched our name way back to Exeter as well. Finding many past relations in the revolution. Mimi is part of DAR.
Another postulation on Kibbe origins with variations of spellings Kibby, Kibbye, Kybbye, Kibbee, Kibbe, Kibbie, Kibbey, etc., is a dialectical variation of a location- possibly in Northern England called Kirby, deriving from the Olde Norse "kirkja"
meaning "church" plus "byr" "settlement". The surname dates back to the mid 16th Century when last names started to be required for taxation purposes.
So Middle English not Middle Eastern. Someone has incorrectly attributed the middle eastern ground lamb dish to the name is all.
Colleen Kibbie-Vest